Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services to the Gauteng region, announced its placement by Gartner Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of its new 2008 Magic Quadrant report on the corporate telephony market.

Gartner is a leading industry research and analysis firm, and its Magic Quadrant report positions vendors in the Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries or Niche Players Quadrants based on the completeness of their vision and ability to execute. In its new report on corporate telephony, Gartner places Avaya in the Leaders Quadrant for both “Completeness of Vision” and “Ability to Execute.” Gartner’s report defines corporate telephony as the provision of holistic voice communications for all wired and wireless users in large enterprises.

Avaya’s corporate telephony portfolio is powered by Avaya Communication Manager, a software platform that offers businesses communications solutions using IP telephony, traditional telephony, or a combination of both. Communication Manager gives organisations a foundation to take full advantage of Avaya Unified Communications solutions, which include a broad range of feature-rich applications for unified messaging, unified conferencing, video collaboration and enterprise mobility.

For the first time, Gartner’s 2008 Magic Quadrant for corporate telephony represents three geographic locations: North America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and the Asia/Pacific region. Gartner combined these regions in part to reflect the growing impact of globalisation on the corporate telephony market.

Gartner’s research indicates that Unified Communications now plays an important role in corporate telephony decisions. The report states: ‘It is increasingly important that companies consider their telephony partners in the broader context of a UC strategy. Companies should take this opportunity to consolidate their investments into a smaller number of vendors, using IP telephony to deliver a consistent platform across the estate of users in preparation for integration with UC and collaboration platforms, especially for branch, small offices and customer service locations.’

“We believe our position in Gartner’s Leaders Quadrant affirms Avaya’s strategy of building products that help organisations gracefully transition their existing infrastructure to IP telephony for real-time, always-on business communications,” said Jorge Blanco, vice president, product management, Unified Communications Solutions, Avaya. “Powerful unified communications solutions begin with a reliable, scalable and survivable voice and video telephony platform, and Avaya will continue to lead in the evolution of this key area.”